Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships

From 1984-2009, the Getty Postdoctoral Fellowships program was one of the Getty Foundation's flagship initiatives. Administered at first by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and then by Getty, the program aimed to broaden the definition of the visual arts and better connect art history to other humanistic disciplines.

Over the years, we supported more than 350 of the most talented emerging scholars at the beginning of their careers, and many of them are leaders in the field today. Following the economic downturn of 2009 and our shift to strategic philanthropy, we concluded that postdoctoral fellowship program.

In 2017, we took learnings from our earlier endeavor and launched a new postdoctoral fellowship program that would be more international and better connected to Getty. We awarded six years of fellowships, concluding our grantmaking in 2023 and closing the program in 2024.

ACLS administered the program, and ten fellows were selected each year with the assistance of an advisory committee. The program welcomed research approaches that highlighted voices, narratives, and geographical regions that have been historically excluded and under-studied in the academy.

At the end of each academic year, the fellows received support to travel to the Getty Center for a multi-day research residency and seminar.